A Louisiana boy finds a home in Tennessee

Archive for October, 2017

I use rain water for my water source on the ridge, a decision made easier by a well driller who pointed out three drilling sites and noted that if we didn’t find water here, we’ll drill there and if that one is dry, too, we’ll drill over there.

I spent 10 years of my life drilling oil and gas wells when I was in my 20, so I know a thing or two about subsurface nomenclature and expenses associated with casing a well.

He looked puzzled when I asked him who would pay for the dry holes. So instead, I called RainHarvest Systems out of Cummins, Ga., and ordered a 3,000 gallon rainfall catchment system with all of the bells and whistles. That included two 1,500 gallon tanks. But it turned out I only had room for one tank in the old cellar, so my neighbor was kind enough to buy the extra tank from me. He uses it for his horses.

My water system before I covered it with an aluminum carport.The filters are under the tarp at left.

The pump they sent was OK, but when water levels were low, the pump lost its prime, which required two people to get primed again. That is a problem since I live alone, so I had my plumber install a submersible pump I bought at Lowe’s, which I learned this past winter, will suck the tank dry and still not lose its prime. But that’s for another blog post.

So while the water is free, I have about $4,000 invested in my water system. It has worked great so far, but I noticed that over time, the water pressure was getting weaker. My able assistant Mr. Google told me that’s a sign of the filters needing to be changed.

Did I mention the filters? There’s three of them, a 20 micron, 5 micro and charcoal filter, placed in a series. Three replacement filters cost $130.

My plumber left out a cutoff valve between the pressure tank and the filters, so in order to change the filters, I had to cut power to the pump and drain the pressure tank.

The filter covers at the car wash, getting a bath with Clorox and warm water

I don’t know why, but I thought that was going to be a pain in the neck to do, so I put it off as long as I could. I ordered the new filters back in December. And the box they came in has been a nice side table by the front door for all these months.

With the first big cold front of the season moving through this week, I decided I needed to do it now, so I took a day off from work to get it done.

It turns out that it was pretty simple to do. And the next time will be simpler because I’m going to add a cut off valve right before the water intake on the filters. I’ll wait until spring to do that, though.

You really should change filters every year. I waited 18 months. Those things were nasty.

My filter kit came with transparent covers because I wanted to be able to see when they needed changing. Big mistake. I put the water system in the old cellar, just below and on the side of my house. My plan was to cover the shelter, but cash grew tight and I couldn’t put a roof over it.

So for nine months, the water system was exposed to the sun. I covered it with a tarp, thinking that would keep it from getting direct sun.

Remember this equation. Sunlight + water = algae. Lots of it. Who knew that much algae could grow in a 5-inch cylinder?

So I put the nasty filters in one garbage bag and the covers in another. The old filters went to the convenience center. The covers went to the car wash where a good high pressure bath with healthy heaping of Clorox and they looked as good as new.

The drive to and from the car wash took longer than actually replacing the filters.

In January, I had a portable garage installed over my water system in the cellar. In the next few weeks, I’m going to enclose it so I can keep the pipes from freezing this winter like they did last winter.

So here I sit with clean filters and half a day off with nothing to do but wash clothes, surf the web and get ready for my trip to a tiny house jamboree in Newport, Tenn., tomorrow.